Page 96 of Fallen Thorns
“Yeah,” I confirmed. “I’d quite like you to meet my mother.”
“Good because I’ve already packed.”
It was my turn to raise my eyebrows. “You would have come regardless, wouldn’t you?”
They winked and shot finger guns at me as they backed out of the doorway. “Melissa will love me.”
* * *
The train journeywould have been insufferable if not for Rani’s wise choice to travel in the late evening — the quietest and cheapest time to travel — so we could sleep, or at least try to. We couldn’t go direct, but the changes were smooth enough. Of course, Mars tagged along with the excuse that they weren’t used to travelling alone, which was hard to believe, and they felt as though they would be putting my mother off by arriving late and not, for convenience’s sake, accompanying her son right from the start.
For a brief moment, realising I wouldn’t be able to drift off as Rani had so easily managed, I pulled out my notebook and began to summarise some thoughts. My shaking pen and the presence in my mind made it too difficult to concentrate, so, after noticing Mars was trying to steal a glance in the window reflection, I tucked it back into my pocket and closed my eyes.
Finally, I slept.
I open my eyes as our fourth table seat is loudly occupied by another traveller. He apologises for waking us and hauls a stiff, leather duffle bag onto the overhead racks before throwing himself into the seat beside Rani. She doesn’t stir. In fact, neither does Mars beside me. Their chest gently rises and falls, face flopped to the side to face me. So the apology was just for me…
“Yes, I was talking to you, Arlo.”
“Michael? I thought you weren’t joining me. You said you had business to attend to…”
“That I do. So, you are correct, I am not joining you. I just wanted to wish you safe travels.” His toothy grin is too sharp for a human, nor is it that of a vampire, and as I look to his reflection, low and behold, there are his wings. Cramped behind him on the chair, they look much darker this time.
He catches me staring.
“Like what you see?” He lifts his heavily decorated neck and pushes against the headrest.
“You have wings.”
“You are so perceptive.”
“What are you? What are we?” I ask, as I always do, though I never quite receive an answer.
“I’ve told you before: we are everything. The Sun, The Moon and The Star.”
The more he answers like this, the more he begins to make sense. Nothing he does seems to scare me anymore. But a tiny flicker in the back of my cramped mind shivers. It cannot bear the weight of this reality. I shut it off.
Good.
“Drink up!” He nods towards the flask I unknowingly hold in my hand now. I peer down to its contents, filled with a thick black liquid. I look back up to question him, but the seat is empty, and his bag is gone.
“Tickets please.” I blinked to watch a lady in rail company attire sauntering down the aisle, clipping her hole punch in one hand, a scanner in the other. The train wobbles to the side a bit and she holds out an arm to steady herself on the empty chair beside Rani.
Mars unveiled a slightly bent paper ticket from their pocket and after a few more waking breaths I prepared my own ticket, as did Rani.
With the lady satisfied and moving on, I slapped my face to confirm I was no longer dozing.
“Did she startle you there?” Rani yawned and laughed at the same time. “Should make that my alarm,” she joked. A moment later she frowned. “What have you been eating?”
“What do you mean?”
Mars was now looking at me strangely too. “Your lips are black.”
I pressed my fingers to my lips and rubbed a little, removing my hand to see charcoal-coloured tips.
I drank it. Again.
“Oh, that. I had some of those boiled sweets, you know the liquorish ones that are more E numbers than anything natural.” I laughed it off and watched them both nod intently as if they knew exactly what I meant and didn’t even remotely suspect that I’d just told them a complete lie…
